HDD to SSD

Windows 8 with a dell insperion 660 I-5 with a 1 TB HDD.
Have a Samsung 256 GB SSD on order.
From what I read is it really necessary to do a fresh OS install. Is this really needed?
When I got this new desktop a month ago I spent over a day installing my other programs and setting it up the way I like. Not looking forward to doing this again.
Also would installing new OS mess up my backup plans.

Only currently use 90GB. My plan was to have a backup bootable drive to get up and running fast if ever a drive failure.
I would install the SSD and then make a partition of 256 GB in my old HDD. Then occasionally make an image of the SSD and restore it to the HDD.
I want to be able to boot to the 1TB drive in case of SSD loss. Then I could image or clone the SSD at regular intervals to the SSD-sized partition on the 1TB drive (including MBR, etc).
But if a clone of a HDD to a SSD is not a good idea. Then would a clone from a SSD back to the HDD not be a good idea if I did a fresh install of the OS on the SSD.
Or do I just have a bad backup plan

You don't need a fresh install, a cloning or imaging tool will take care of migrating your OS fully intact to the new SSD. I went that very route with Windows 8 more than a year ago. It will probably be easier if you partition the HDD before the migration, though.

You don't need a fresh install, a cloning or imaging tool will take care of migrating your OS fully intact to the new SSD. I went that very route with Windows 8 more than a year ago. It will probably be easier if you partition the HDD before the migration, though.

Thanks this will make it a lot easier. I was thinking of doing the partitioning after I made sure I had the new SSD up and running ok. Just in case I lost any data when I partition the old HDD. I do have the full Paragon 14 software. To make a image and it does have a partitioning utilty that I have not use yet.

Once you've cloned or restored that image to that new solid state drive, don't
forget to ensure that TRIM is active, among other things;

Windows 8 & 8.1
From the Windows run box, or Elevated command prompt:WinSAT.exe formal
*No need to disable defrag in 8 or 8.1, it's done when an SSD is detected from running winsat.Windows 7
From an elevated command prompt:fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 0: This indicates that TRIM is enabled and working on the operating system.
DisableDeleteNotify = 1: This means that TRIM is not enabled, and that SSDs will therefor not benefit from it.

DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.